On site hydrogen production from methanol steam reforming is an attractive topic for fuel cells. Methanol steam reforming is an endothermic reaction in which the heat can be supplied from methanol catalytic combustion. This study designed similar experimental conditions to compare the differences between the packed bed and the micro-channel bed for methanol catalytic combustion over Pt/Al2O3 catalysts. The characteristics of different catalyst beds are examined. These results show that the efficiency of methanol catalytic combustion in the micro-channel bed was superior to that in the packed bed. In the micro-channel bed, the sealed pad creating free space detrimentally affected the efficiency of methanol catalytic combustion, although the space velocity was reduced. The temperature of the IR image on the micro-channel plate of the catalyst bed displayed the temperature of the real reaction status in time. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.